By the common law imperfections in informations and complaints may be cured by amendment, on application to the court; this practice is permitted for the reason that the presentment is by one person only. If an indictment could be amended it would not be an indictment of a grand jury. That body might refuse to present the pleading in its amended form.

A complaint is that form of criminal procedure usually resorted to in prosecutions before magistrates and justices of the peace. The same technical precision is not required of a complaint before these inferior courts as is required in courts of record.74 But a complaint must set out an offense in substance at least, otherwise it could not be the basis of a warrant. The filing of a complaint which substantially states an offense is the only means of giving the magistrate or justice jurisdiction.75